as he was that she was gripping his arm so hard. Belatedly, like a person waking up from a dream, she released her hold on him. Collecting herself, she asked, “You’ll let me know the second you’ve found her? One way or the other, you’ll let me know,” she begged.
“If they get the phone lines working, I promise I’ll let you know as soon as I find her,” Jonah told Donovan’s fiancée.
“As soon as we find her,” Dallas corrected. “We’re in this together, remember?” he reminded Jonah. “Don’t worry,” he told Bellamy. “Four sets of eyes are better than one.” And then he turned toward Jonah again because there was no denying that Jonah was the team leader. “Just in case your superhero radar is off,” he said, attempting to add just a little levity to what was a very dire situation.
“Spread out, guys,” Jonah ordered, ignoring Dallas for the time being. “Before we go running off, beating the bushes for any sign of Maggie, let’s find out if anyone here saw her or talked to her before this storm decided to redecorate the landscape. Plenty of people here to talk to,” he added, gesturing around at the people who occupied the rec center. Still more were filing in by the hour.
* * *
Jonah felt he was getting nowhere. Questioning resident after shaken resident, he was forced to detach himself, putting up a wall between himself and those who were so very desperate to share their story with someone. He hated being so impersonal but needed to keep a clear head if he wanted to be able to find Maggie.
And he did.
Not just to keep his promise to Bellamy, but because he felt a special connection when it came to the woman he’d been tasked with finding. He remembered Maggie Reeves all too well from school, even though he was five years older than she was. He’d been a gawky kid back then, skinny as a rail until he’d started working on his parents’ ranch in his teens. He’d filled out then, but Maggie, Maggie had been born beautiful and only grew more so as time went by. He remembered that she’d even won the coveted title of Miss Austin in a beauty pageant. There had been other accolades along the way. But that was before she had gotten married.
The marriage didn’t last, but he could have predicted that if anyone had asked. James Corgan might have been wealthy, but he was an amoral alley cat. All the money in the world couldn’t change that, Jonah thought as he continued questioning survivors. He never understood what Maggie had seen in James, but whatever it was, her vision cleared up soon enough and she had divorced him.
And now Maggie was out there somewhere, hopefully alive—
“Hey, Jonah, I found somebody who saw Maggie maybe an hour before the storm hit,” Forrest called out.
Jonah looked up to see his brother trying hard not to limp as he made his way over. The former detective had Rae Lemmon with him. Adrenaline raced through Jonah as he instantly crossed to the duo, meeting them more than halfway.
“You know where she went?” Jonah asked the young woman with Forrest.
“I think so. Maggie talked to me just before she left.” The petite brunette nodded, as if that added weight to what she was about to say. “She told me she was going to Live Oak Ranch.”
Jonah looked at Rae, puzzled. “Doesn’t that belong to her ex’s family?” he asked the woman. Maybe Rae had gotten her facts confused. “Why would she be going there?”
Rae raised her slim shoulders in a helpless shrug. “I don’t know. Maggie said she was going there because she needed to uncover a secret.”
“A secret?” Jonah echoed, in the dark as much as ever. He glanced at Forrest, who just shook his head. He obviously didn’t have a clue, either. “What secret?” Jonah asked the paralegal.
“I don’t know,” Rae repeated helplessly. “She wouldn’t tell me anything. Maggie said she’d know more once she got there.” And then Rae remembered something. “She did say she had a map.”
“A map.” Jonah was beginning to feel like a parrot, just repeating things that made no sense. He felt as if he’d been swallowed up by the hurricane and was now being tossed around without rhyme or reason. “Why would she need a map?” he asked. “Maggie lived on Live Oak Ranch when she was married to James, didn’t she?”
“Yes,” Rae answered. “But she took the map with her because she said she needed to pinpoint the biggest tree on the ranch.” Rae shrugged again, feeling frustrated and helpless. She pressed her lips together, silently upbraiding herself that she hadn’t made Maggie tell her more. “She really wasn’t very clear, and I have to admit that I wasn’t paying much attention to what she was saying. I was too busy going over last-minute details for the wedding,” Rae confessed.
Rae flushed. The excuse sounded so weak now that she said it out loud.
“Not that it looks like that’s going to happen now, at least not on schedule,” she added in a small voice. Her tone shifted as she returned to the more important subject under discussion. She needed to tell Jonah anything that sounded even remotely relevant. The smallest thing could be instrumental in locating Maggie. “But I know Maggie—she gets something in her head, she doesn’t let it go. I’m positive that she was there somewhere on the ranch when the storm hit.”
“And you’re sure about this?” Jonah pressed.
He was still somewhat skeptical about this information. After all, it had been a significant amount of time since Maggie had gotten divorced and she and her husband had gone their separate ways. From what he had heard, hers wasn’t one of those divorces where the couple remained friends even after their marriage was dissolved. Maggie gave every indication that she didn’t want to have anything to do with her ex.
So why would she suddenly go wandering around his family’s ranch?
It didn’t make any sense to him.
But sense or not, it was the only lead he had about Maggie’s last whereabouts, so unless he found out something that was more immediate, he was going to act on this.
And he made up his mind that he was going to act on it alone.
“Absolutely sure,” Rae told him solemnly. There was a slight hitch in her voice. “You’re going to find her, right?”
“Right,” Jonah replied without a moment’s hesitation. “I’ll find her.” And he fully intended to do just that, even if it was the last thing he ever did.
More reports of missing residents were coming in even as Jonah stood there, listening to Rae. The volunteer search and rescue organization he and his brothers belonged to was already stretched to the limit, not to mention exhausted. He wasn’t about to ask any of them for help, but he didn’t plan on stopping until he located Maggie. The thought of her out there, stranded, possibly in danger and clinging to life, wasn’t something he could live with if things took a turn for the worse.
Even if he hadn’t already given his word to Bellamy and to Rae, he had made up his mind to do everything in his power to find Maggie.
By the sound of it, the wind was picking up again. Jonah looked out the rec center windows and saw the trees bending like flexible dancers before the oncoming winds.
Were they in for a second wave? It didn’t matter, he thought. He knew he needed to get out there now, before traveling on horseback became hazardous and maybe even impossible.
“Thank you, Rae,” he told the distraught woman. “You’ve been a great help.”
She began to say something more, but he didn’t have any time to waste. Jonah searched the area for someone he could charge with looking after Rae for now.
“Forrest,” he called to his brother. The latter turned toward him after a moment, eyeing Jonah quizzically. “Look after Rae, will you?” he requested. “She seems like she could use a friendly shoulder to lean on.”
Forrest didn’t look happy about the reassignment. “What about going to look for Maggie